One Day, Even We Will Be Saved
by LittletonPace
Summary: *sequel to death came & got me* It's been a year, and the dead are still walking. The world changed, and Jordyn changed with it. No more can she be silent and agreeable. Her sister's safety requires Jordyn to harden up and take action, but how much of herself will she lose in the process?
1. It Takes A Prison Not To Break

_Jordyn and Marnie are back for season three, enjoy! :)**  
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**Chapter 1: It Takes A Prison Not To Break**

Jordyn never thought she would be so happy to see a prison.

Rick and Daryl had spotted it while out hunting. Food was becoming even harder to find and what they did find was on the very edge of being edible. But Daryl could always be counted on for finding them something. Whether it was an owl, a deer, or squirrels, he never came back from a hunt empty handed. And this time, as well as two hares for dinner, he and Rick came back with news of the prison.

The look on Rick's face when he told his group of the prison was as close to happy as Jordyn had seen him in months. Winter had been tough on all of them. Hopping from house to house to search for supplies or, in the case of the sturdier homes, shelter.

The one good thing about winter was that it slowed down the walkers. So many of them got stuck in the snow of their own accord, but during the snowstorms they would fall over and not be able to get back up. It provided Jordyn and her friends with excellent target practice. Some walkers had even appeared frozen, but Jordyn hadn't stuck around to see what would happen to them once the snow melted.

The farm seemed like a lifetime ago to Jordyn. They'd lost Andrea, Shane, Jimmy and Patricia that night. And almost Hershel, too, but Rick had coerced him to leave his farm for the sake of his daughters. But the group hadn't found a safe place since like that since.

Now, the group stood just across the river from the prison that had Rick so energized. Jordyn stood next to Lori, the pair of them each clasping one of Marnie's hands. Lori had become so skinny, but her belly was nearly bursting as she came to the end of her pregnancy. To Jordyn it seemed that holding Marnie's hand provided Lori with more support than the other way around.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Lori needed to be still; which was exactly why Rick had said he wanted them to make an attempt to overtake the prison. It struck Jordyn as funny that the ideal place for Lori to give birth was likely going to be a jail.

Jordyn scanned the prison yard. It was dotted with walkers shuffling around inside the external fence. They all wore the same greyish-blue prison jumpsuit and didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Most just stood on the spot gently swaying back and forth, some wandering up and down the grass until they hit the fence. Then they would turn around and wander the other way.

Jordyn glanced down at Marnie. She was watching the walkers, too. But she wasn't scared. She'd stopped being scared of seeing them when they were a safe distance away. She'd stopped being scared of a lot of things after the farm had burned away to nothing.

"We can take them down," Rick was saying to the group. He stood with his back to all of them, keeping his sharp eyes on the prison. "We just gotta make our way inside and we can take 'em all down from within. No bullets; just blades. Save the bullets for when we get inside."

Jordyn had three weapons: her rifle, an axe and a pistol. She'd been good with saving bullets in the last few weeks and become much better at hand to hand combat with the walkers through winter. One good swipe with a sharp axe and she could slice off a head.

"Do you think they have food?" Marnie whispered up to Lori.

Lori stroked her head. "I hope so, sweetheart."

In the past months as Lori had become less and less mobile, Jordyn had had to step up her game. She needed to scout perimeters with Maggie, do supply runs with Glenn, and help Daryl hunt. And to do that, she had to leave her sister with Lori. At first the separation had been hardest on Jordyn, but it didn't faze the Lori or Marnie. Lori was a mother, just what Marnie needed.

"Even if we can just get into one block…" Rick's voice had an edge to it, an excitement. A surge of adrenaline and purpose; something he had been slowly losing as the months had worn on. Rick turned around to face his people, his eyes gleaming. "Glenn, Jordyn get the tools. We'll leave the cars here and come back for them."

Jordyn nodded and dropped Marnie's hand and followed Glenn back to her truck - she had stopped thinking of it as Merle's. Their food supply was almost non-existent. They didn't have a lot of food saved, most of the time they relied on Daryl's hunting. But tools were a different story. Every home they ransacked usually had a hammer or an axe somewhere. The group rarely left a tool behind if they came across it.

From the truck Glenn took some wire cutters and a spool of red wire, Jordyn grabbed her axe from the dashboard and then grabbed two extra axes from the back for the others. Finally, from its place right by her leg in the driver's seat, she grabbed her rifle and looped it over her shoulder.

"This might work," Glenn said as he loosened the red wire so it was easier to unspool. "We could take down that prison. I mean, together all of us have taken down hundreds of walkers."

"Yeah," Jordyn couldn't hide her grin. It was definitely a chance worth taking for the payoff if they succeeded. "Anyway, people are always bitching about overcrowded prisons. We're just culling the numbers to keep the people happy."

Glenn playfully nudged her with his shoulder and they headed back to the group. He was stronger now, musclier. Nearly a year fighting for his survival with Maggie at his side had done him well. Jordyn had always thought of him as adaptable, and he was yet to prove her wrong. But really, all of them had adapted. They'd had to.

Rick had hardened over winter, he was always on guard. He didn't ever seem at ease. Not even with Lori. Carl was hardened, too. He very much saw himself as a protector of the group, like his father, as opposed to one who needed to be protected. After finding peace over losing Sophia, Carol had turned her energy into learning whatever Hershel could teach her about medicine.

Daryl hadn't really changed. In fact, Jordyn thought he seemed more comfortable now than he had the year before when all the madness started. In a weird way, she felt he was made for a world gone to hell.

It suited him.

So far, the walkers hadn't changed either. They were about the only thing in the new world that hadn't. Over winter, Jordyn wondered if the walkers, like the living, adapted to their surroundings; if they would grow stronger or learn how to run and catch up with anyone lucky enough to still be alive. But it hadn't happened yet. They were still slow, shuffling corpses out for blood.

Jordyn and Glenn arrived back at the group as Rick was giving his orders. "We stay tight around Lori and Marnie until we get through the first fence."

There were two fences between the group and the walkers. Basically, it was a circular, outdoor hallway. One side of it kept the inmates contained, and the other presumably for the security guards to keep an eye on their prisoners without worry for their safety.

"Do not break formation," Rick continued as he readied his gun. "Only kill the walker if it's right on you." He caught the eye line of everyone in his group. "We ready?"

Jordyn handed one of the extra axes to Maggie and the other to T-Dog, and then they started off. They crossed around the river and made their way towards the prison perimeter fence. Daryl was on Jordyn's left with his crossbow, Maggie on her right with an axe. One of Jordyn's hands was gripping the handle of her own axe, the other hand was twisted behind her back clinging to Marnie's shoulder. Jordyn wanted her sister as close to her body as possible.

"Move, move," Rick urged them all forwards, paving a way towards the fence.

Walkers outside of the prison spotted the group and started shuffling towards them. Jordyn quickly counted ten or fifteen walkers on her side, but none were that close to pose any immediate danger. She did as Rick ordered and kept formation.

The group made it to the fence, and now was the real test. Their circle rearranged to protect Glenn as he cut a hole in the chain link while the rest of them could only stand there waiting, and watching the walkers get closer and closer.

Jordyn knew which walker she would kill first, it seemed to have its eyes on her: a black haired guy missing an arm with his ribcage busting through his rotted skin. He didn't have a lot of control over his arms, even for a walker, but he tried to reach out for Jordyn as he stumbled closer to her. His elbows bent backwards and most of his fingers were gone. When he was within a few feet of the group, Jordyn lunged forward and swiped her axe straight through his neck. His headless corpse fell lifelessly at her feet.

"Nice swipe," Daryl said as he fired an arrow into a bald walker dragging it's leg along the ground.

He was teasing her, she knew that. He said that almost every time she swiped a head clean off a walker because it had taken her months to actually do it for the first time. Generally, after her first swipe stuck, she had stop and try to yank the axe out of the walkers head. Often she didn't have enough time before more walkers were on her tail, so she had had to just give up and leg it. She'd lost quite a few axes that way.

"Got it!" Glenn said.

Jordyn turned and helped Rick hold open the gap in the fence. Jordyn yanked her sister through and pushed Lori and Carl in right behind her. Carol ushered Beth through and then ducked in herself. Hershel followed, then Maggie, T-Dog and Daryl. Rick nodded to Jordyn to go in next, and then the Sheriff stepped through. Glenn was last. As soon as he got on the other side he began to loop the red wire through the sliced chain link to close off the hole.

A female walker growled and threw her body against the fence. Other walkers, who had seen this wandering group of human dinner, began to do the same. Making sure Marnie was away from the fences, Jordyn pulled the hunting knife from her waistband and stabbed the female walker straight through her skull between her eyes. She stopped groaning and sagged against the fence. When Jordyn yanked out her knife, the body fell heavily to the ground.

Glenn finished tying off the red wire and then he and Jordyn brought up the rear of the group as they jogged along the security fence. The Inmate-walkers spotted them and were making their way for the fence while walkers outside were slowly following them along the outer fence.

Jordyn kept looking over her shoulder as she jogged to make sure the red wire would hold the fence closed. The walker she had killed was still slumped right in front of it. Ahead of her, Jordyn saw Beth clutching Marnie's hand to keep her running.

The group came to a stop at a watchtower where the fence was still holding the walkers on either sides of the fence at bay. A large truck had been turned over inside the prison grounds. Jordyn could see the entrance into the prison from the yard; it was a sliding gate that was wide open. walkers were shuffling from the inside out into the yard.

"Just gotta close that fence," Rick said. "It's perfect, we just shut that gate to keep more from filling the yard." He turned to his group with hints of a smile tugging at a corner of his mouth. "We can pick off these walkers and we'll take the outside by tonight."

"How do we shut the gate?" Jordyn asked.

"I'll do it," Glenn volunteered. "You guys cover me."

"No," Maggie shook her head. "Suicide run."

"I'm the fastest," Glenn said.

"No, she's right," Rick told Glenn. "You, Maggie, Beth and T-Dog lure as many walkers as you can back up the way we came. Kill 'em through the fence." Rick slid the rifle off his back and handed it to Carol. "Daryl, Jordyn, Carol go back to the other watchtower but take your time. We don't got a lot of ammo to waste." Rick turned to his son. "Carl, you and Hershel take this tower. I'll run for the gate."

Lori looked extra pale but nodded. "Be careful."

"You hang onto Lori, okay?" Jordyn told Marnie as she handed her axe to Hershel and her knife to Beth.

"I know," Marnie said, but she was distracted all the walkers closing in around them.

"Hey," Jordyn knelt forwards and tilted Marnie's face towards hers. "We'll be inside soon and all these walkers will be gone."

"C'mon," Daryl nudged her from behind.

Jordyn kissed Marnie's forehead. "I'll be right back." She turned to Daryl and, along with Carol, the three of them jogged to the opposite end of the security fence to the other watchtower. There was a door leading inside, Daryl had it open with one solid kick and then quickly checked to make sure it was clear before calling Carol and Jordyn through.

The trio ran up the staircase to the top and each took a position out on the balcony. It had been awhile since Jordyn had used her rifle. Most of the walkers she had come across in the last few months were up close, perfect fodder for her learning to slice and dice with her axe and hunting knife.

Setting up her rifle was like riding a bike, Jordyn remembered exactly how to use it without even thinking. She took the strap off her shoulder, positioned her hands, closed one eye and peered through the scope. In a second she had lined up a walker's head right in the target. She fired, and the walker collapsed. Jordyn grinned to herself and set up another shot.

Through her scope, Jordyn could see Rick zigzagging this way across the field towards the open gate shooting down walkers as he ran. Carl and Hershel were up on the other tower balcony expertly shooting down the inmates to keep Rick's path clear. And Glenn, Maggie, Beth and T-Dog had lured most of the walkers to the fence with all their yelling and were killing them through the fence with axes and blades.

Jordyn kept her eyes on Rick as he made it to the gate, slid it shut and locked it up tight with a chain they had picked up from one of the houses they'd stayed in. Then he backed into the inner watchtower. Jordyn held her breath for a few seconds and then exhaled in relief when she saw Rick come out on the top level balcony.

"He did it!" Carol almost laughed.

"Light it up!" Daryl yelled out across the field.

The cue had everyone with a gun shooting walkers. Even Lori. Jordyn could see her shielding Marnie with her body as she fired her handgun through the heads of the walkers closest to her section of fence.

The sound of gunfire echoed through the air, and for the first time in awhile, Jordyn was having fun. With not a lot to do these days for entertainment, she'd learned to take what little pleasure she could out of what was now a daily task in killing walkers. She had a great shot lined up for a guy with a red ponytail, but as she was about to shoot when through the scope she saw an arrow go through his head. He fell before she even got to fire. "Hey!" She turned to Daryl who was smirking and loading up another arrow.

"Assface," Jordyn muttered and went back to shooting. A guy with a bad Mohawk was her next victim, then a man with tattoos all over his face, then a really pale white guy without either of his arms. She was searching for a fourth, but through the scope she just kept seeing crumpled bodies. The gunfire quieted, the last gunshot's echo evaporated into silence. All the walkers, on either sides of the fence, were dead. For good, this time.

Everyone in the watchtowers hurried back down and met everyone at the tipped over truck. Lori slid open the gate and ushered them all through into the prison grounds. "C'mon, Goober," Jordyn took Marnie's hand and led her into the prison grounds. It was a welcome change to have so much room to move around and not have to be taking down walkers every few steps.

"Look at all this space!" Carol grinned. "We haven't had this much room since the farm!"

Marnie was practically skipping to keep up with her sister. "They can't get through the fence?" She asked.

"They'd have to figure out how to climb first," Daryl answered her as he fell into step by Jordyn. "No chance of that."

"Yay!" Marnie let go of Jordyn's hand and ran on ahead towards Lori.

Jordyn moved to grab her but Daryl stopped her. "She can run now," he said. "Nothin's gonna grab her in here."

"Alright!" Rick addressed everyone. "We'll stay out here under the stars tonight, then tomorrow we'll start heading inside. We'll do it block by block, cell by cell if we have to."

"I'll go back and get our stuff." Jordyn volunteered. Their three cars and Daryl's bike were still across the river.

"Gotta get my bike," Daryl said. "I'll come with."

"Same," Maggie replied. Then she looked to her sister. "Beth, wanna drive the hatchback?"

Beth nodded and gave Maggie a tired smile. "Sure."

Jordyn started to go towards Marnie to tell her sister, again, that she would be back soon, but when she saw her she held back.

Marnie was spinning on the spot, giggling and holding her arms out as far as they would go. Jordyn immediately flashed back to the last time she had seen her sister do spin like that. It had been months ago with Andrea, just after they had found Marnie. After a long stint of driving, Andrea pulled them to a stop at a gas station and got out of the car with Marnie to stretch her legs. Jordyn had been asleep in the car with Daryl, and when she woke up and saw her sister twirling she had become instantly frantic. Spinning around like that out in the open was like waving a banner to the walkers.

But inside the prison, Marnie could spin and spin to her hearts' content. Even if the walkers outside could see her, they couldn't get to her. So instead of interrupting her sister's spinning, Jordyn let her be. It was just like Daryl had said; nothing was going to grab her in here.


	2. You Are Mine To Keep Warm

**Chapter Two: You Are Mine To Keep Warm**

Jordyn yanked her axe out of the corpse of an infected prison guard and ducked around a stone pillar next to Maggie. Rick had led them through the first gate, now they were making sure every walker was dead before they ventured into the nearest prison block from the gates they had come through. C Block.

"Good?" Maggie asked Jordyn. Her eyes were gleaming and bright with the thrill of walker killing.

"Yeah, I'm good," Jordyn closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing. She reminded herself for the millionth time that Marnie was safe with Lori behind the fence. She needn't worry about her sister; her mind had to be focused on clearing out the prison. "Been awhile since we've taken down so many."

"I know," Maggie smiled and wiped the back of her hand across her brow. "A handful at a time is one thing, different when you're running into a swarm."

"Good practice," Jordyn said, grateful for the few moments to catch her breath. T-Dog and Glenn jogged towards them carrying chunky pieces of black plastic. Jordyn clearly recalled stabbing the necks of two walkers wearing the very same gear.

"Riot gear." T-Dog confirmed.

"Did you undress a walker?" She smirked at Glenn.

"Just the first layer," Glenn tossed Jordyn a riot shield and gave Maggie some armguards.

"Good, good, good," Rick chanted as he marched over to them with Daryl at his side. "Good idea, Glenn," Rick began to help T-Dog tie on a chest guard.

"Why would they have riot guards in here?" Maggie asked. "The fences held, it's not like the prisoners were breaking out."

"Maybe they brought them in to help the infected prisoners out?" Glenn suggested.

"Yeah, cops in here helping out the bad guys," Daryl scoffed. "More like they brought 'em in to make sure the caged stayed caged."

Rick showed Jordyn how to hold the shield in front of her. "Push forwards with the weight in your shoulder, not your arm," he said. "You'll pack a bigger punch."

Straightening his chest guard, T-Dog walked towards the body of another dead riot walker and took the shield out of his hand. He had to knock the body over with his foot first, the handle of the shield had become lodged in the decaying flesh of the walkers palm. "Thank you, Sir," he said.

Jordyn watched the riot walker's body fall back into place. His arm twisted backwards on top of him and his fingers were still bent in the fist that had held the shield. His fingers had formed an upside down OK gesture across his chest. Jordyn laughed to herself. "He's calling you an asshole."

T-Dog looked from the body to Jordyn with the same puzzled look. "How do you figure?"

"He's signing it," Jordyn mimicked the gesture with her own hand across her chest. T-Dog laughed and copied the gesture.

"You know how to sign?" Rick asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Mainly the curse words," Jordyn didn't broadcast her limited knowledge of sign language because she didn't think it was that impressive. All she knew were the basics, and swear words. "My best friend, Dani, her mother became partially deaf after a car accident so she learned to sign. Dani picked some of it up and taught it to me."

It had been awhile since Jordyn had thought about Dani. The day of the breakout Jordyn had spoken to Dani's father, Ted, from his bar where both girls worked. He had said he and his family were leaving the city and ordered Jordyn to get out of town. Jordyn wondered if they had in fact gotten out of the city and were surviving on the land just like her. Truth was, they probably were out there somewhere. As walkers.

"Seems like a million years ago, doesn't it?" T-Dog said. "Friends, work, stuff from before."

"We can reminisce once we get inside," Rick cut in. "Focus. Just 'cos you have the armour doesn't make you invincible. Be just as careful, alright?"

With their armour secured, the group moved forwards to go through the next gate. The walkers had already seen them and were throwing themselves against the fence. Rick opened the gate and the group pushed on through. Jordyn gripped the handle of her shield and rushed the walker in front of her. It was already unsteady on its feet so when Jordyn collided with it they both fell right to the ground. The walkers face squelched underneath the clear plastic of the shield.

Before Jordyn could get back on her feet another walker was towering over her and groaning hungrily. She slammed her axe up into its neck, knocking it to the ground. As she got to her feet, she grabbed the handle to pull it out and brought it down again right between the walkers glazed eyes. It immediately stopped groaning.

Jordyn yanked her axe out of the walker and positioned her shield to bash her way into some more infected prisoners ahead of her. Maggie was right beside her, the pair developed a rhythm where Jordyn would knock the walkers down with her shield and keep them pinned while Maggie stabbed them in the head with her hunting knife.

When the sounds of blades cutting flesh and walker moans quieted, Jordyn realized she was gasping for breath. She felt like she'd been running flat out so hard that her heart was going to explode out of her body. She looked around to her friends. They were all still standing, albeit covered in the same array of blood and guts Jordyn knew was all over her skin.

They all paused for a moment, silently checking each other to make sure they were all okay. No bites, no fatal injuries. Rick signalled to Lori, who was watching earnestly on the other side of the fence, that they were okay and so the group moved on. It seemed the more distance between Rick and Lori, the calmer both were. Jordyn, and everyone, had noticed the change between them. The tension and strain.

Something was broken in their relationship. Jordyn figured it was caused by a lot of things. Lori sleeping with Shane, the possibility that Shane was the baby's father, Carl becoming too hardened, the stress over having to survive day to day, hour to hour for so long. Rick losing his best friend, his people, and not able to hang on to the man he once was; Jordyn supposed it all contributed. Somewhere along the line they had just drifted apart even though they spent every day together.

Rick lead the way through the fenced tunnel into the entryway of the prison. It reminded Jordyn of a waiting room at some sort of industrial doctor's office, only with fewer chairs and a guard tower at the top of a metal staircase. No walkers were there to greet them, but the smell of death was thick and present. There were vented windows at the top of the ten foot high walls, and the gusts of air blowing through kicked up the smell like dust in an old attic.

Rick held his finger to his lips, out of habit more than anything else, and ascended the staircase towards the tower. From where she stood, Jordyn saw one pane of glass from the tower windows had been shattered by the bullet that had gone through the guards' head; the guard still being at his post. Even from at the base of the stairs, Jordyn could see his body slumped backwards, and his dried blood decorating the inside of the booth with a dark red spatter.

Rick reached into the booth and then came back down the stairs a moment later with a set of keys in his hands. "Let's move in," he said.

Jordyn kept by Maggie as they followed Rick to the gate leading into the cells of C Block. The key made a rusty squeak as it unlocked and the door whined as it was pushed open. They all paused in the doorway, waiting for the sound to bring out walkers. But none came. The group moved in.

There were two levels. A staircase like the one by the guard tower led up to the second level. The whole area had roughly the same amount of space as a small two-level townhouse. There were seven cells on the bottom level and five on top. Jordyn edged into C Block further, peering into the first cell she saw. It was empty, though the door was wide open. Jordyn trailed after Rick as he slowly made his way up the staircase. Daryl was behind her, and the sound of all their boots on the metal stairs awakened a cell full of walkers.

They were in the locked cell at the very end of the second level landing. Hearing the footsteps made them come to the bars, but seeing their visitors made them ravenous. The caged walkers growled and lunged, energized by the scent of human flesh. Jordyn hugged the railing to stay out of arm's reach of them. They all seemed to be wearing prison jumpsuits. Inmates. Jordyn wondered if they had locked themselves in there for protection against the other infected inmates; but then the one of them had died and infected the rest.

"Leave them for now," Rick said to Daryl and Jordyn. "They're not going anywhere." He turned and leant over the edge so T-Dog, Maggie and Glenn could hear him. "Check the bodies are dead and the cells are locked," Rick told them.

"Where should we start?" Glenn asked.

"Glenn, get up here and help me take care of these walkers," Rick flicked his head back at the cell where the infected prisoners were still reaching out hungrily for them. "Daryl, you, Jordyn and T-Dog sweep the lower level again," Rick took a pistol from the back of his jeans and handed it to Jordyn. "Make sure every way in or out of this room is locked up tight."

Jordyn nodded, took the gun and jogged back downstairs behind Daryl. T-Dog met them at the base of the stairs, and all three spread out. With the gun in one hand and her axe in the other, Jordyn headed towards the hall at back of the lower level that curved around a corner. There were no cells that way, but it lead somewhere and she had to make sure it was closed off.

Around the corner, she spied three walker bodies flat on their backs, and a fourth lumped over on its side. Jordyn kept her grip tight on her handgun and her axe as checked the lumped over walker first. Half of its head was gone and the blood, plus whatever else had come out of its brains, was dried on the cement beneath it. It had been there for awhile. Jordyn gave the walker a few kicks to reassure herself before moving on.

Jordyn checked the remaining three bodies twice to make sure they wouldn't be jumping back onto their wobbly feet. All of these walkers had prison jumpsuits on, but they were in a hallway. There were no cells here. At the end of the hall where the path curved left was a metal gate leading into the next section of the prison. The gate had thick, iron bars locked closed with a jumble of padlocks and chains. Jordyn tucked the handle of her axe under her arm and shook the bars to see if they were loose. They jangled loudly, but the locks held. Even if there were walkers in that section, they would never make it through this gate.

"Hey, Jordyn?" Rick's voice called out. "How's it look?"

"Nothing living back here," Jordyn announced as she kept looking. "Just bodies."

Turning her back to the chained-up door, Jordyn sighed and looked up at the windows. The walkers would have to pile thirty bodies high to even get close to climbing through them. Still, it made her nervous. The bars were wider up there, if a walker did get that high it might be able to slide through. Jordyn shook her head to herself, her paranoia was getting the better of her. It often did when she was alone. Her mind wandered, and there was a lot to think about.

The snarl caught Jordyn's ear a second too late for her to react. "Agh!" Jordyn grunted as the back of her head collided with the iron bars behind her. In the sudden shock, she lost her grip on both her gun and her axe. The tangle of locks and chains holding the gate closed dug right into the small of her back. She could feel the heat of the walkers breath in her ear as it growled and tried to bite her. It had grabbed a hold of Jordyn's hair and was trying to pull her back through the bars. "No!"

Jordyn couldn't reach her weapons, but the walker had her by her hair. And her hair was something she was more than happy to give up. Jordyn pushed herself off the bars. The muscles in her neck strained and her scalp screamed in pain as the walkers gnarled fingers knotted in her hair, trying to hold her still so it could get its teeth into her. Jordyn let herself fall forwards so the walker was holding her total weight by the hair between its fingers. Her skin was on fire, her neck straining like hell against the walkers surprising strength.

With a sting that burned straight from the roots of her hair, Jordyn fell free from the walkers grip and onto her knees. "Shit!" She rolled onto her back and reached out for her gun. The walker was having no success trying to force it's fistful of Jordyn's hair through the bars into its mouth. With one shot, Jordyn took it down and it fell in a heap with her hair still in its hand.

Whinging loudly to no one in particular, Jordyn sat up and gingerly touched her wet scalp. When she drew her hand back there was blood on her fingertips. "Jesus," she hissed to herself. Her head was still burning.

"What happened?" Daryl came bursting in through the hall. His eyes fell on the walker on the opposite side of the bars. "Thought you said it was clear back here?"

"It was," Jordyn snapped. Even with a perfect view of the walkers face, Jordyn still couldn't tell if it had been male or female. It wasn't wearing a prison jumpsuit; so she assumed it had been a woman. "The bitch grabbed my hair," She tilted her head towards Daryl so he could see.

"Shit," Daryl inspected her scalp. "You rip your hair out?"

"It was either that or get bitten," Jordyn felt instantly panicked. She hadn't felt it's teeth chew into her, but she hadn't been able to see what it was doing. "It didn't bite me, did it? It's not a bite, is it? Did it bite me?"

"No, you just tore a chunk of your hair clean out," Daryl said tentatively touching her scalp with the corner of his shirt to clear off some of the blood. "You're gonna have a killer bald spot for awhile."

Jordyn winced as he wiped blood of her head. She couldn't care less if she wound up bald, her hair had saved her life. If the walker hadn't got its fingers tangled in it, it might have dug straight into her scalp and chewed her like a hand fruit.

When Jordyn and Daryl came back to Cell Block C; Rick was smiling again just as he had when they'd discovered this place. "Glenn and Maggie are going back to get everyone else," he said to Jordyn and Daryl. "We'll clear out the bodies into the next section for now, tomorrow we'll see about moving 'em outside."

By the time Glenn and Maggie came back with the others, Jordyn and her friends had moved all the bodies out of Cell Block C. There hadn't been as many as she thought there would be. Course, a few of them weighed as much as three combined. It was exhausting work, and when she was done the bandana Daryl had fashioned for her out of a raggedy piece of his shirt was soaked through with sweaty blood.

As soon as Carol arrived saw Jordyn was injured, she pulled her aside to clean up the wound. Carol had found a real niche dressing wounds, she had a gentle, mother's touch that made her "patients" very comfortable. While Carol was washing out her wound with some bottled water, Jordyn watched Lori and Marnie who were hand in hand as they inspected the cells on the upper floor.

"Everyone pick a bed," Rick said from the top of the staircase. "Rest up, we'll settle in tomorrow. For now, just get some sleep."

"Never thought I'd be looking forward to sleeping in a prison," Carol said.

"Just don't think about the walkers we'll have to clear out in the morning," Jordyn winced at Carol's touch.

"It'll be raw for awhile," Carol said as she fixed the bandage on Jordyn's head. "But it kind of just looks like a bad grazed knee. Keep it clean and it should heal up fine."

"Thanks," Jordyn said. "I think I've got an aspirin at the bottom of one of my bags."

"Get some sleep," Carol told her. "You look like shit."

Jordyn scoffed but couldn't hide her smile. Over the past year, Carol adjusted to the loss of Sophia day by day, and now she was becoming quite a tough, snarky woman. Jordyn liked it.

Trying to suppress the urge to pick at her bandage, Jordyn made her way upstairs to get her sister ready for bed. Marnie and Lori were in the middle cell, two away from the where the cell full of walkers had been. Even though Glenn and Rick had killed and cleared out all the infected, no one was keen to sleep in there.

Jordyn leant against the doorway and saw Marnie was sitting on a top bunk while Lori was stretching out on the bottom rubbing her belly. "Marnie?" Jordyn clicked her fingers at her sister and waited by the cell door. "Come on, bed time."

"I wanna sleep here," Marnie said hugging Elroy to her chest. Though battered and bruised, her teddy bear was still hanging in there with the rest of them. "It's a top bunk."

"There are bunks in all the cells," Jordyn held out her hand expecting her sister to climb down and take it. "You can have the top of any of them."

"No," Marnie insisted. "I wanna sleep in here with Lori."

"Lori needs to rest," Jordyn said, growing exasperated. "We all do. Now, come on down from there."

"No, I'm sleeping," Marnie flopped down on the mattress with her back to Jordyn.

"Marnie," Jordyn crossed her arms. The longer the world was in ruins, the more Marnie was prone to bouts of attitude. "I'll lift you out of here if I have to."

"It's fine," Lori sat up. "Once she falls asleep she'll be out for hours." Her worn face smiled. "You go, get some rest. I got her."

Jordyn waited for a few seconds, wondering if Marnie would give in, climb down and follow her. Cry for her to stay and sleep in the bed with her, then ask for a song or a story. But she didn't, Marnie just kept her back to Jordyn and feigned sleep. As long as she slept, Jordyn generally didn't mind where her sister was as long as she was safe. Most of the time nowadays, that seemed to be with Lori. Jordyn sighed and wandered back to the first cell that she figured she would claim as her own. Closest to the stairs, the room was just like all the others. An eight-by-ten cell with a bunk-bed and a non-functioning toilet. It was small, but whilst in there alone Jordyn suddenly felt her cell was very big and very empty.

Glenn had left one of Jordyn's bags on the bottom bunk of her cell, and in the bottom of one of the pockets she found the aspirin she was looking for. She had four left and dry-swallowed two hoping they would ease the throbbing in her head. But her head wasn't her only source of irritation.

It wasn't a totally foreign situation for Jordyn to be in, to have Marnie actively not choose to be with her. Marnie and Lori had been spending a hell of a lot of time together. Especially lately, since Lori couldn't do too much on her feet. Jordyn always felt Marnie was safe with Lori, it never worried her when she had to leave her sister alone. Lori would, and did, protect her like she deserved to be protected. It had never bothered Jordyn before.

Slowly, everyone retreated to their cells. Some left the doors open, some slid them closed. Rick didn't even claim to a cell. Instead he chose to sleep sitting against the wall, downstairs by the gate they had initially come through. Jordyn thought about sitting down there with him, but he was clearly not in the mood for company. She wouldn't have known what to say to him anyway. Instead, she went back into her empty cell and laid out on the bottom bunk with her hands folded behind her head.

Cell Block C soon quieted to almost complete silence. The scuffle of people searching through bags, the squeaking of old mattresses as people tried to adjust to comfort; all of it died down. But Jordyn couldn't sleep. It wasn't right, she didn't feel right. There wasn't a sentry. Marnie wasn't in her line of sight. They were all separated, scattered in different rooms. They were safe, Jordyn told herself repeatedly that they were safe in this prison. She had gone around and seen the locks on the gates and how strong they were. As long as she kept clear of the locked gates, she wasn't going to get grabbed again.

But still, she couldn't relax.

Unable to get comfortable, Jordyn rose, stepped quietly out of her cell and went over to the railing by the stairs. She sat on the ground and let her legs dangle over the edge. She could see Rick from where she was sitting; he was sitting up but he looked like he was sleeping. Maybe he was, or maybe he was faking. Maybe they all were. Maybe everyone else was lying on their backs staring up at nothing, wondering why the hell it felt so dangerous to be safe.

If she leant forwards, Jordyn could just see into Lori's cell and spy the small lump that was Marnie sleeping on the top bunk. She was seven now, and the older she became the more Jordyn knew her sister wouldn't need her as much. Course it would be years until Marnie wouldn't need her at _all_, Jordyn was just hoping the world would go back to normal before that happened. She was still a little girl, she still needed someone to take care of her. Although, lately Jordyn hadn't been the one doing that. Jordyn wondered if maybe that's what bugged her, that Marnie _did_ still need someone, but that someone wasn't her big sister anymore.

"What're you doin'?"

Jordyn jumped a little in surprise, she'd forgotten Daryl was sleeping right out in the open after proclaiming he wouldn't be sleeping in a cage. "I can't sleep," she told him. "It feels weird. No one's on guard."

"Last time I checked, walkers couldn't smash through concrete walls or prison bars."

"It doesn't feel right," Jordyn said. "We're all just lying here."

She scooted back on her butt until she reached Daryl's blanket and laid down beside him. "Marnie didn't want to sleep with me," She muttered.

"Huh?"

"She'd rather bunk with Lori," Jordyn ran her hands over her eyes feeling waves of weariness spread through her.

"Good," Daryl said tiredly. "You can cut her off that leash you keep her on."

Jordyn weakly smacked his chest with the back of her hand, and left it there. Her eyes were heavy and she stopped fighting to keep them open. She felt Daryl's hand slide over her leg and rest just under the bend of her knee, like always. And Jordyn let herself fall to sleep.

They weren't Glenn and Maggie. They didn't kiss in front of the others. They didn't talk about their feelings. They didn't hold hands as they walked along. They didn't need to; because they had the night. The night where Daryl had taught Jordyn how to listen for walkers in the darkness. The night where Jordyn had taught Daryl her limited knowledge of sign language, yet so far he had really only mastered the Spock salute. The night where they had shared sentry duty at the various houses the group had crashed in over winter. The night where she made him laugh, and he made her feel strong. The night where no one saw them, they came alive.


	3. Drop Dead Legs

**Chapter 3: Drop Dead Legs  
**

The following morning was strange. It was the first time in a long time that Jordyn was reminded of life before walkers, before hiding, before safety came to them all in the form of a prison. Over winter with their constant moving, Jordyn had gotten used to sleeping wherever she wound up laying her head. Sometimes it was in attics, or in the front seat of a car, or even just a plain, cold floor using her bag as a pillow. She was generally so exhausted it didn't matter to her where she laid down. And she still preferred the floor to a prison bed, at least for one night.

Despite knowing she was safe, knowing that walkers couldn't find their way in, Jordyn couldn't shake the anxious rock in the pit of her stomach that had been there since she woke. Her sleep had been scattered; she was used to waking up after a few hours to take a sentry duty, or check on Marnie. It was hard to convince her body that it could shut down for eight hours.

It was around sunrise when Jordyn gave up trying to go back to sleep and instead got up to make sure she had something for Marnie to eat for breakfast. Next to her sister's safety, keeping her fed and healthy was her main concern. A premature baby, Marnie had always been susceptible to colds and infections. And though the heavy snow over winter had slowed down the walkers, it had only heightened Jordyn's anxieties. Every time Marnie had a sniffle, Jordyn bundled in blankets and two or three layers of clothing. She took no chances. And given that Marnie was still healthy; Jordyn figured her method worked.

At the bottom of one of her backpacks, Jordyn found a couple of travel sized boxes of sugar cereal. Every now and again the group would stumble upon a house with powdered milk - which Marnie still favoured to regular milk - in the cupboard and Jordyn would carry it in one of her bags, but they hadn't found any in a while. Marnie didn't mind eating dry cereal, though, and she never complained.

Everyone else woke up soon after sunrise. Lori was still quite exhausted so Carol stayed by her bed with her. Marnie didn't want to get up, she was glad to have a bed again, and Jordyn was happy to be able to tell her sister that she could stay in bed all day if she wanted to. Jordyn gave the cereal to Carol to let her divvy them up between Lori and Marnie and then went downstairs to join the others as they prepared to delve deeper into the prison. Jordyn would eat later, sometimes it was easier to clear out bodies and kill walkers on an empty stomach anyway. And Rick had already told them all he was hoping to find the prison cafeteria so they could raid it. He also thought there was a good chance the medical centre would have at least basic items they could use. That is, if they could find it.

Jordyn joined Daryl, Rick, T-Dog and Glenn at the bottom of the stairs. Someone had found a rickety metal table and Rick was using it to survey all the weapons and ammo they group had left. T-Dog and Glenn had canvassed the walker corpses from the cleared out courtyard that had been sporting riot gear and found some more useful tools. There were a couple of nightsticks, more armguards and shielding, and a few gas grenades. "Not sure how they'll work against walkers," Rick admitted as he rolled a gas grenade in his palm. "Might give us a few seconds distraction. I'll take that."

Maggie set out a couple of battered aerosol cans on the table. "Spray paint," she said. "Mark our way back with arrows and we won't get lost."

Rick nodded in agreement. "Okay, everyone keep your guns on you, but don't fire unless you have to. Less noise we make in here, the better."

Jordyn took an axe from the table and gave it a few gentle practice swings while Maggie helped tie a shield to Jordyn's chest. The motion of the swing sent pangs up to her raw scalp. Her head was still stinging, and a night on her back hadn't helped. Daryl had given her a fresh bandana made from another strip of his shirt, but Jordyn was going to have to get Carol to wash it out again when they got back.

When everyone was ready, and those left behind had said their goodbyes, Rick lead his group into the depths of the prison armed with the keys he'd swiped off the guard when they had first arrived. None of them spoke, they were all straining to hear anything that might be a walker. A shuffle, a grunt, a moan. Anything. Jordyn was between Maggie and T-Dog, Glenn and Hershel were behind them and Daryl and Rick were leading out front.

Without the flashlights, they would have been in pitch dark. The sun didn't reach this far within the prison walls. It was like an underground cavern, paths splitting off into different corners of darkness. Jordyn kept in step with Maggie as the group huddled forwards. The ground was covered in so much dirt that their footsteps made as much noise as if they were outside walking on gravel. As they rounded every corner, Glenn sprayed an arrow pointing back in the direction they had come from with the bright orange spray paint. It would be so easy to get lost down here.

Every few steps they came across a body. Most had been there so long they were unrecognizable as either male or female. They were just lumps of rotted meat. There was a body slumped against the wall at Jordyn's right with a lead pipe all the way through its head. She shone her flashlight over its face only to see that it didn't have one anymore. Eyes, nose, mouth; all long gone. It was just a pallet of black, dried flesh with a pipe sticking out of it.

They all slowly edged around the next corner and came to a row of cells. At the end of the row, the path split into a T-junction, and adjacent to the path that the group had come through was another corridor leading somewhere. The group dispersed to check the exits were covered. The cell doors were all wide open and every second cell had a body ditched out the front of it. These were some of the oldest corpses Jordyn had seen at the prison so far. They had rotted away to nothing more than skeletons with strips of dried flesh still clinging to the bones.

Jordyn checked a cell without a body out the front of it, and found the cell occupant was still in bed. She assumed he was male, he was wearing the prison jumpsuit. Jordyn's flashlight spied reddish-brown stains all over the mattress and spattered over the walls. Blood. Old blood. A bloody pillow was just under the bed frame with a big round hole in the fabric. The side of the man's head had been blown clean off. Jordyn inspected his face a little too long and her stomach flipped; but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up anyway. Why this prisoner had seemingly been mercy-killed, Jordyn could only guess. Maybe he had survived the first wave only to get bitten and one of his prison-mates had shot him in his sleep. It wasn't worth dwelling on, Jordyn could make herself nuts wondering what the hell people did to each other now.

Rick clicked his fingers to call the group back into formation. Glenn sprayed another couple of arrows on the wall and then the group continued on towards the T-junction. Jordyn inched towards the left while Rick went right. Glenn marked another arrow on the wall. Jordyn shone her flashlight around the corner and illuminated a dead end. Her breath caught in her throat. There were four walkers just standing there, motionless.

That was until they saw the light. Then they snapped out of whatever sort of stasis they were in and lurched into action. "Back, back!" Jordyn backtracked into Maggie and clung to her arm. If they backed up enough, it would give them all time to prepare a weapon and each take out a walker with little trouble.

They reversed back through the T-junction and into the room with the cells, all keeping their eyes on the four walkers ahead of them. Suddenly Rick let out a shrill, "Shit!"

Jordyn turned and her flashlight shone on a train of walkers were making their way in through the exact way Jordyn and her friends had come through. Alerted by the sound of movement, the lights or maybe the sound of Glenn spray painting; something had drawn them out.

"Move!" Rick held his arms out to his sides to block anyone from passing him and ushered them all over to the adjacent path, the only one that didn't have walkers spilling out of it.

In the shuffling backwards, Jordyn dropped her flashlight so she just kept her hands on Rick to guide her way as they ran back where they had just come through. They were rounding corners so fast, Jordyn lost count and she knew Glenn wasn't pausing to mark them with arrows. Then a chorus of groans up ahead made Rick freeze and Jordyn smack right into him. "Shit, go back!" Rick turned and shoved Jordyn into a run in the other direction. Rick overtook her to take the lead again but T-Dog held a hand to Jordyn's back to keep her moving forward. From behind the group, Jordyn heard Maggie scream and Glenn swear, but Jordyn couldn't see a thing when she looked back for them. And T-Dog was hustling her forwards so she couldn't stop to see if they needed help.

Around another corner. No walkers up ahead, but the growls of the ones behind them were still moaning hungrily as they followed the human scent. Jordyn had no idea where she was going, just that Rick was in front of her. At least, she thought it was still Rick. She reached out to grasp his shirt but her hands just clawed at the air. A sickening feeling crept over her as for a second, had she strayed from the group? Were the footsteps and heavy breathing just her own panic echoing off the narrow walls?

Then someone yanked Jordyn's arm, pulled her sideways through a swinging door and then right down to the ground. The glow of a flashlight revealed Daryl beside her still gripping her forearm, Rick hunched down and blocking the doorway, and Hershel and T-Dog squatted next to him. Jordyn couldn't hear a thing, her heartbeat was so loud in her ears. She had never thought of herself as claustrophobic, but at that second she sure as hell wished she could get outside into fresher air.

"Glenn and Maggie?" Rick whispered as he scanned their smaller group and realized they were missing.

"We gotta go back." Hershel insisted, immediately straightening up.

"Wait!" Rick pulled him back down. "Just wait for a second."

The growls of walkers and their shuffled footsteps passed right by the swinging door. Maybe they were all just following each other and not following the group anymore. Maybe the human scent wasn't that strong down here in the tombs where it was masked by the reeking smell of death was always in the air. The shuffling and moaning disappeared and Rick carefully pushed open the swinging door to look out. He shone his flashlight back and forth, but saw no walkers. At least, none standing or moving. Rick held open the door to let Jordyn and Daryl out. Then Hershel and T-Dog.

Jordyn didn't hear anymore screaming or fighting and hoped that meant Glenn and Maggie were just hiding and hadn't been attacked. Rick seemed to know the way he was going, so Jordyn followed him, jogging in step with Daryl when a pained howl made her falter on the spot. She turned and saw Hershel, his screaming face illuminated by his own flashlight, with a walker biting into his calf.

"No!" Jordyn started running back. Daryl ran back ahead of her, kicked the walker off Hershel and shot an arrow into its skull. "Hershel?" Jordyn knelt down by Hershel and tried to soothe him, but he knew he had been bitten and was frantic.

"No, get away from me!" He tried to push Jordyn's hands off him. "It bit me, get away!"

"No, Dad!" Maggie cried. She and Glenn came bursting out of a supply cupboard. All of their noise alerted the walkers from wherever they were, and with the sound of their approaching growls they were closing in fast from all angles.

"Lift him, lift him!" Rick ordered as he and Glenn scooped Hershel up off the ground. Jordyn lifted Hershel by the protective vest he was wearing while Maggie held his head and neck steady. T-Dog took off out the front while Daryl fought of walkers behind them.

Jordyn had to constantly rearrange her grip on Hershel for fear she would just drop him. It wasn't so much that he was heavy but he wouldn't stop struggling.

"Here, here!" T-Dog was holding open a door into a room bathed in light. When they had made it through with Hershel and Daryl had knocked back a walker, T-Dog forced the doors closed and used his crowbar to keep them shut. Then he pressed his back against the door as an added barrier. Walkers banged against the doors, making them shudder and whine on their hinges.

As the group laid Hershel down in the middle of the floor, Jordyn realized they were in some sort of laundry room. It was an open space, too large to be empty. There had to be more walkers in here. But Hershel was the focus, he had to be. Jordyn knelt down by Hershel's bitten leg opposite to Rick.

"Dad?" Maggie was tearfully trying to keep her father conscious but he didn't seem to be able to hear her. "Dad, you're gonna be okay, alright? You'll be fine."

Jordyn looked up at Rick. He was scanning up and down Hershel's leg, looking at the wound. "Rick?" Jordyn asked, not wanting to upset Maggie further but they couldn't just sit here and wait for Hershel to die. "What are you going to do?"

Rick held her gaze. His eyes glinted and he started removing his belt. "Hold him down."

Jordyn watched Rick buckle his belt just below Hershel's knee and pull it as tight as he could. Jordyn knew what was coming, and didn't know what to do. So she just held Hershel's leg as still as she could.

Maggie glanced at them and saw Rick readying his axe. "No!" she cried. "No, you'll kill him!"

"This is the only chance to save his life," Rick lined up his axe to hit just underneath his buckled belt.

Maggie drew her eyes away from her father and thrust her hand against Rick's chest."Wait!"

"Gotta do it, Maggie," Rick said gripping Hershel's knee. "You know that."

Maggie's face contorted in pain, but she pulled her hand away from Rick and focused back on her father. The bite didn't infect. The bite often lead to non-stop bleeding, but the bite itself didn't cause infection. Because they were all already infected. A fact whispered to Rick by Jenner way back at the CDC, and confirmed through the numerous walkers they had seen without bite marks. The bottom line was that it didn't matter in what manner you died, you would come back as a walker. So if there was a chance to keep Hershel alive, however drastic, Rick was willing to take it.

Rick took a deep breath and ordered, "Hold him down!", then swung his axe into Hershel's leg sending up a spray of warm blood that splashed on Rick and Jordyn's faces.

Jordyn twisted her head away as Rick hacked at Hershel's leg again. More blood splashed on her chest, but she kept holding Hershel steady. A second later, she didn't have to hold him. He fell limp and lost consciousness. Rick was still slicing with the axe, severing more ligaments but unable to get through the bone. Jordyn watched as Rick brought the axe down again, grinding the blade into the bone and trying to slice through it. Blood was flowing from the wound in a thick puddle underneath Hershel. Jordyn felt the wet heat of his blood seep into the knees of her jeans.

With one more solid hack, Hershel lost his leg.

Now, they just had to keep him alive. Judging by the amount of blood running out of his leg, that was not going to be easy.

Daryl, who was right beside Jordyn, suddenly froze. She did, too. He did the same thing out in the woods when he'd seen something. Animal, walker, unknown; whatever it was, when Daryl saw it, he stopped dead still. Catching Rick's eye, Daryl made a motion with his chin to an area just behind them. Jordyn looked over and saw there was a barricaded counter, behind which was another part of the laundry. And just dipping below the counter's edge, Jordyn saw movement.

Daryl counted down on his fingers with Rick. Daryl had his crossbow ready, and Rick had his pistol. When Daryl counted down to one, he and Rick sprang to their feet aiming their weapons at whatever was behind the counter.

When she heard no shots and Rick and Daryl stayed put, Jordyn stole a look for herself. Hiding inside the protected area were five men in prison uniforms torn into varying states of disrepair. The man in the centre with slick, black hair in a half ponytail only wore a wife beater and the prison issue pants. All five were armed with pipes or thick planks of wood or metal. And none of them appeared to be infected. One of the shortest men, the only white guy, with dirty blonde hair, a thin face and a handlebar moustache, gaped wide-eyed at the scene on the other side of the protective barrier. "Ho-_ly_ shit..."

**xxx**


	4. Left Behind

**Chapter 4: Left Behind**

Jordyn peered around Rick's side at the five prisoners who had been hiding behind the counter. They filed out one by one as Daryl kept his eye, and crossbow, aimed right in their direction. Jordyn got a good look at them as they appeared. The Latino with the half-ponytail and the white man with the moustache came out first. Behind them came three black men. The shortest guy also appeared to be the youngest and was armed with a sharp blade. Behind him was a middle-aged man with a shaved head who was brandishing an axe, and the tallest was a heavyset giant of a man who looked the most worried of all five of them. The giant gripped his weapon of choice - the stick of a mop or broom - and looked frantically between Jordyn and her friends.

T-Dog moved from the crow-bar locked double doors, took out his gun and stood by Daryl facing off with the prisoners. The walkers on the other side of the doors growled and slammed themselves against the wood. Without T-Dog there to hold them firmly shut, the doors banged and shuddered as the walkers tried to smash through.

"Jordyn," Rick's urgency refocused Jordyn's attention. He was rearranging a towel in her hands so it covered Hershel's newly stumped leg. "Push as hard as you can."

Jordyn just nodded and did as he asked. Hershel made no sound of pain as Jordyn put pressure on his wound, but Maggie kept constant watch on his breathing and continued to try and rouse him.

"Do you have medical supplies back there?" Glenn, with no fear, ran right through the group of prisoners to where they had been hiding behind the counter. He returned a few moments later wheeling out a metal table.

"Okay, lift him," Rick ordered as he himself prepared to lift the bulk of Hershel's weight up onto the table. "We gotta get him back."

Jordyn tried to lift Hershel's legs and keep pressure on his wound at the same time. The towel slipped and Hershel's wound pulsed blood over Jordyn's arms. She managed to keep her grip on him and they all set him on the table. Behind her, Jordyn heard the walkers on the other side of the door snarling. The smell of Hershel's spilling blood energized them and they were digging their fingernails into the wood to try and claw through.

With Hershel atop the table, the group slid him right back against the far wall. Jordyn took Maggie's axe and partnered Rick to the doors. Every few seconds there would be a loud bang as the walkers threw themselves at the door. The crowbar slipped from side to side between the handles, losing its hold on the door with every bang.

Rick held out his hand to stop Jordyn a few feet from the door, then he reached out and took a hold of the crowbar. He locked eyes with Jordyn, nodding once to check that she was ready, then pulled out the crowbar and jumped right back in step with her just as the walkers fell through the doors.

There were four walkers in total. The first that came at Jordyn was one of the riot guards. Since he still had his helmet on, Jordyn swung her axe like a bat and knocked him to the ground to get him out of the way, and then she started for another walker. This one was a prisoner whose body was so decayed his jumpsuit just hung off his visible bones as though he was a clothes hanger. Jordyn brought the axe down into his face, smashing in what was left of his nose, and lodged the blade into his brain. She gave him a hard shove in the shoulders to get his body off her axe, then she returned to the riot walker and slammed the axe underneath his helmet and into his neck. She had to swipe a few times to cut the blade through the skin and bone and destroy the brain.

"Go, go, go," Rick grabbed Jordyn's elbow and pulled her back to the others. Rick had taken care of the other two walkers that had fallen through the doors, and was ushering Jordyn, Glenn and Maggie along with the table that held Hershel back out into the hall.

Jordyn didn't have time to stop. She took the lead with Rick and they left the laundry room. Daryl and T-Dog brought up the rear making sure the five prisoners didn't follow them. But as soon as they got to the first corner and Jordyn looked back, she saw the shadow of the prisoner with the half-ponytail coming in their direction.

They couldn't slow down, Hershel was running out of whatever time he had left. Two walkers greeted them at the next corner, Jordyn took out one and Daryl's arrow zipped past her ear and took care of the second.

The group sped around the next corner and Jordyn spied one of Glenn's spray paint arrows. "This way!" She directed everyone forwards and followed the arrows until they had made it back to Cell Block C.

"Carl, open it up!" Rick yelled as they ran in. Carl used the keys to unlock the gate and held it wide to let them steer Hershel inside.

"What happened?" Carol asked as she jogged down the stairs to greet them. Lori awkwardly tried to hurry down the stairs behind her with one hand on her belly.

"He got bit," Rick said. "Let's get him through."

Carol directed them into one of the cells. Beth was inside organizing the contents of a couple of bags. Her face broke when she saw her father. Lori quickly put her arms around Beth and they watched as the group transferred Hershel onto the bottom bunk. Carol grabbed the bed sheet off the top bunk and used it to staunch the bleeding. "Carl, get me the bandages from the cell next door," she knelt down beside Hershel and begun inspecting his leg.

"Is he gonna turn?" Beth whispered tearfully to Lori. "Is he gonna die?"

"No," Lori hugged Beth to her chest. "No, he's not gonna die."

"I need to keep his leg elevated," Carol said. Blood had already seeped through the sheet she'd used. "Get me some pillows!" Rick ran off to do as she asked.

"Can you burn the wound to clot the blood?" Glenn asked. "I could make a fire-"

"No, the shock could kill him," Carol said. She shifted aside so Maggie could kneel down and help. "It needs to heal on its own. We need to stop the bleeding and keep it clean." She shifted and her back clanged against the metal table. "Jordyn, can you get that table out of here?"

Jordyn slid the table outside of the cell right back against the wall. She leant against it and let her head hang down. Shaggy pieces of her hair fell into her face, unstuck from the bandana that was soaked in sweat and blood. Her heart was still racing; panic and adrenaline were pulsing through her so fast she couldn't catch her breath. Hershel had been bitten. Seven months on the road and they had all survived. Now, in a supposed safe haven, Hershel had been bitten. Jordyn closed her eyes, the memory of Rick hacking away at Hershel's leg replaying over and over in her mind. All that blood...

"Jordie?" Marnie's voice called fearfully from the second level.

Jordyn looked up. Marnie was clinging to the bars of the railing like an infant in a crib. "Stay up there, baby," Jordyn pointed at the cell behind her sister and realized her arm and most of her upper body was doused in Hershel's blood. "I'm okay," She assured Marnie. "Just wait upstairs, alright?"

"Is someone hurt?" Marnie asked.

"Just stay upstairs," Jordyn tried to smile to reassure her. "I'll be up in a minute." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Daryl on the other side of the locked gate they had come in through. He had one knee up on a metal bench and had his crossbow aimed at something. "Stay there, okay?" Jordyn repeated to Marnie as she walked towards the gate.

On the other side of the gate, Jordyn saw Daryl had his crossbow pointing at the five prisoners who were filing in lead by the Latino guy with the pony-tail. They had followed them all the way back.

"That's far enough," Daryl ordered as the five men hung together.

"Cell block C," Pony-tail said with a wry smile. "Cell 4. That's mine, Gringo." He jutted his chin at Daryl. "Let me in."

"Today's your lucky day, fellas," Daryl said over his crossbow. "You've been pardoned by the state of Georgia; you're free to go."

Pony-tail didn't move. "What you got going on in there?"

"That ain't none of your concern."

Pony-tail took a step forwards Daryl and pulled his gun from his waistband. "Don't be telling me what's none of my concern."

"Chill, Tomas," The heavyset giant said to his friend. "That old dude's leg is messed up. 'Sides, we're free now. Why're we still in here?"

"Man's got a point," Jordyn spoke up. "I'd listen to him."

Tomas whipped his head towards Jordyn as though he had just noticed she was there. Strands of his half-ponytail swung into his face. "Group of civilians breaking into a prison you got no business bein' in?" Tomas said. "Got me thinkin' there ain't no place for us _to_ go."

Daryl hadn't taken his eyes, or his crossbow, off Tomas for a second. "Why don't you go find out?"

The white guy with the moustache looked extremely nervous. "Maybe we'll just be going now..."

"Hey!" Tomas jabbed a finger towards his prison mate. "We ain't leavin!"

"You ain't comin' in either!" T-Dog burst out from behind ridge under the stairs. He pointed his gun right at Tomas who was aiming his gun right back.

"This is my house, my rules!" Tomas bellowed at T-Dog. "I'll go where I damn well please!"

"It'll be better for all of you if you just leave," Jordyn snapped. It was enough that she had to keep walkers away from Marnie, let alone prisoners who were locked up for who knew what reason. "No one has to get hurt."

Tomas turned and shook his head at her. "Girl, you did not just threaten me," he sneered. "Keep your damn mouth shut."

Daryl took a step to the side blocking the line of sight between Jordyn and Tomas. "You heard her. Get the hell out."

Behind her, Jordyn heard running footsteps. She turned and saw Rick and Carl coming towards her. Standing aside, she helped Carl open the door and then lock it back up after Rick had gone through. "Hey, hey, hey!" Rick had a rifle hanging from his left hand. "There's no need for this." He held his unarmed right hand out towards Tomas, nonthreatening.

"How many of you in there?" Tomas asked.

"Too many for you to handle," Rick said calmly.

Tomas looked from Rick to T-Dog to Daryl, all armed with weapons, all prepared to fight. "You guys rob a bank or somethin'? Why don't you take that old guy to a hospital?"

Jordyn felt her stomach drop. They didn't know. They'd seen their prison mates turn into walkers but didn't know that it was a plague that had ruined the world. "How long have you been locked in that laundry room?" Jordyn asked them.

"Goin' on ten months," For the first time, Tomas looked worried. He rearranged his grip on his gun and looked nervously between Jordyn and Rick.

"Riot broke out," The giant among them offered. "Never seen anythin' like it."

"We heard about dudes goin' cannibal," The youngest said. "Dying; coming back to life. Crazy."

"One guard looked out for us," Tomas continued. "Locked us in the cafeteria. Door leads to it from the laundry room. Guard threw me this piece," He nodded at his gun. "Told us to sit tight, said he'd be right back."

"And that was two-hundred-and-ninety-two days ago," The shaved headed prisoner added. "We've been figuring that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now."

"There is no army." Rick said gravely.

Tomas looked like he might laugh. "What do you mean?"

"There's no government, no hospitals, no police," Rick explained. "It's all gone."

Moustache looked dumbfounded. "For real?"

Rick nodded. "Serious."

The giant man appeared as if he might cry. "What about my Mum?"

"My kids!" Shaved head yelped. "My old lady!" He stepped towards Rick, weapon down, looking desperate. "You got a cell phone or somethin' so we can call our families?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" Daryl mumbled.

"No phones, no computers." Rick still managed to keep his voice calm. "As far as we can see, at least half the population has been wiped out. Probably more."

Tomas shook his head in disbelief, but his eyes were wide and panicked. "Ain't no way."

"I'll show you," Rick said. "We'll take them out," he addressed Daryl and T-Dog. "Show them what's out in the grounds." As Daryl and T-Dog began to herd the prisoners back out, Rick turned around and came back to the gate. "Jordyn," Rick grabbed her hand through the bars. "Go back and watch Hershel. I told Glenn to keep watch but if it comes down to it I don't know that he'll be able to kill Hershel if he turns. Not in front of Maggie."

"I got it," Jordyn nodded. Though she wasn't sure she would be able to shoot Hershel in front of Maggie, either. "What are you going to do about them?" She watched as the giant man disappeared back out into the hall.

"I'll figure something out," Rick said. "Don't tell the others yet, we gotta focus on Hershel."

Jordyn nodded gave him a wobbly smile, then she went back to check on Hershel. Lori and Carol were still working on him, and Glenn was right there with Maggie watching with concern. Carol looked up at Jordyn when she appeared. "Clean yourself up," Carol smiled. "You look disgusting."

Jordyn smirked at her, and then retreated upstairs to her cell. She took off her bloodied clothes and used a towel and a bottle of water to wash her skin. Rick was sure they would be able to find the water supply in the prison and be able to get the taps working again. Until then, bathing was restricted to water bottles and towels. Jordyn tied a fresh bandana around her stinging bald spot and changed into jeans and a t-shirt from the stash of clothes she shared with Maggie and Beth. Then she went to the cell next door to chat to Marnie.

"Marnie?" Jordyn called as she leant in the cell doorframe. "Are you okay?" No answer. Jordyn went into the cell and found Elroy upside down on the top bunk. The pink and blue backpack that Marnie had been using since her _Finding Nemo_ backpack wore out was sitting on the floor by Lori's pack. Marnie's preferred water bottle with faded pictures of a cartoon mermaid under the sea was sitting on a rung of the bunk bed ladder. But Marnie wasn't there. Jordyn checked under the bed and tossed around the blankets to be sure, but her sister wasn't in there.

Jordyn went back and checked her own cell which hadn't been touched aside from Jordyn tossing her bags on the bottom bunk and her pile of dirty clothes in the corner. And the cell that had housed all the walkers at the end of the row was still locked tight. Jordyn jogged back downstairs; maybe Marnie was in the room with Hershel somewhere. Or sitting with Beth.

Downstairs, Jordyn found Beth in her chosen cell cutting the leg off a pair of her father's trousers. "Hey, have you seen Marnie?" Jordyn asked her.

A tearful Beth just shook her head and kept cutting. "Dad's gonna need all his pants cut," she said. "Or else the pant leg is just gonna be dragging around."

Jordyn didn't tell her that it was unlikely her father was gonna be needing any clothes if he didn't wake up soon. Jordyn was sure Beth already knew that. Beth wasn't stupid, and busying herself with a task kept her mind off the inevitable, so Jordyn wasn't going to interrupt her. Instead she checked under the bed for Marnie, and then left Beth alone.

In the next cell, Carol was attempting to keep Hershel's stump clean while Lori kept rotating damp rags on Hershel's forehead. Glenn was holding Maggie's hand while the pair of them watched Lori and Carol work. But Jordyn didn't Marnie. Hershel looked very pale. But his skin hadn't begun turning grey so Jordyn hoped that was a good sign. They just had to keep him alive and he wouldn't turn.

"Lori, have you seen Marnie?" Jordyn asked. Lori always knew where Marnie was.

"Upstairs," Lori said as she rinsed a rag in a bowl of water. "We were reading a book before you brought Hershel back."

"No, she's not upstairs," Jordyn said. Then both Carol and Lori looked up at her.

"She's not?" Lori used the bunk bed ladder to pull herself to her feet. "I told her to stay put."

A cold feeling ran up Jordyn's spine. She held Lori's gaze and watched her eyes grow concerned. Jordyn pushed off from the door and ran up the stairs two at a time. "Marnie?!" She went into her cell and tossed everything around. Then she did the same in Lori's cell. Downstairs she could hear Lori calling Marnie's name. Jordyn checked where she and Daryl had slept, she checked around every corner and over every ledge. But Marnie was nowhere to be found.

**xxx**


	5. A Castle On A Cloud

**Chapter 5: A Castle On A Cloud**

Marnie knew she should turn around and go back to her bunk, but Hershel was bleeding so much. She didn't want to have to go back and see it. Beth and Maggie were crying, and Carol said she needed help to make Hershel feel better. Medicine. So when Carl had gone off with the keys and his gun, Marnie had gone with him. She just didn't tell him she was coming.

If he saw her, he would sent her back so Marnie made sure she stayed out of his sight. She had watched him unlock the gate and hang the keys on a hook by the door. Then he had gone down the hallway. Marnie waited until she couldn't see him anymore, then pushed a chair over to the side of the gate and climbed up to get the keys. It was one of the silver keys that opened the door.

Marnie followed the same way she'd seen Carl go, up and around the corner. She did as Jordyn and Daryl told her to and checked around the edges before she went around. Marnie checked and saw there were dead walkers in the pathway. Two of them lying on top of each other. Marnie knew it was safe to pass them because they had big holes in their heads. Jordyn told her that as long as the head was smashed then the walkers couldn't hurt her anymore.

Still, Marnie didn't like being too close to them. She stayed back on the opposite wall until she'd gone around the next corner. There were no walkers this way, but there were a lot of those cages like the one she slept in with Lori. They all had bunk beds. Marnie had wanted a bunk bed forever, but the one she had dreamed of was a lot nicer than these ones. They were dirty and smelly, but Lori said they shouldn't complain. They were safe now.

Marnie peered around the next turn; there were a lot of walkers in the way. All of them were lying out the front of their cages. They looked and smelled horrible; they always smelled horrible. Jordyn and Lori always told Marnie not to look at their faces; but sometimes she looked by accident. There were so many of them around it was hard not to peek at them every once and awhile. They used to scare her, those yucky faces. But as long as they weren't moving or making those animal noises, Marnie wasn't really scared of them anymore.

Not wanting to wander through all the bodies, Marnie turned around and went in the other direction. The hall went around a bend to another bunch of cages. There were no walkers this way. There was nothing this way. Then suddenly, Marnie remembered she was supposed to be following Carl. But she'd gone backwards and didn't know which path he had taken. She had turned around when she saw all the bodies,. Carl wasn't scared of walkers, so maybe he had gone through those ones back there? Or maybe he'd taken another corner, was there another corner that she had missed?

Two loud bangs made Marnie jump out of her skin. She squealed and then covered her mouth with her hands. Screaming was bad, the walkers heard it and came after you. But she knew that banging sound, she'd heard it plenty of times now. Gunshots. Marnie turned around and ran back the way she'd come through. She had to get back to Lori, Jordyn would be so mad when she found out she'd gone out alone.

Back through one hall she found her way to a row of cages. Some had their doors open and some didn't. It didn't look like the hall Marnie remembered coming through. She didn't recognize this hallway, it had a word written on the wall that she didn't know how to say. And only one side had the cages. The way she had come through had cages on both sides, didn't it? Her heart started beating really fast and she wanted to cry out for Jordyn or Lori, but the walkers would hear her. She had to hide, Jordyn always told Marnie that if she ever got lost that she was to hide and be really quiet, and Jordyn would find her.

The next room Marnie went into was even stranger. It had a yellow door and she was sure she hadn't seen that before. The room was full of huge metal boxes that looked like really big washing machines. When Marnie was little, she used to hide in their washing machine at home when she played Hide And Seek with Connor.

The yellow door banged closed behind Marnie, and then she heard footsteps out in the hallway. And they were fast. The walkers! They had heard the door slam shut; they were going to find her. Marnie ran on her tiptoes to the big washing machine at the end of the line. The door was already open a little bit. Marnie had to jump up a little and wriggle into the machine. Her shoes banged on the inside of it, but she got in and pulled the round window-door closed. It didn't shut all the way, but Marnie hoped it was enough to make sure the walkers didn't see her.

Huddling into a ball, Marnie hugged her knees to her chest and bit into her knee. She shouldn't have wandered off; Jordyn had no idea where she was. How was she going to find her? What if the walkers found her first? Could they hear the noise her shoes made? Could they hear her breathing?

The sound of the yellow door banging closed again made Marnie hold her breath. They were in the room with her. Marnie wanted to scream. She stared at the round window-door and saw a pair of legs appear. She wanted Jordyn. Or Lori. And her Mummy, she wanted Mummy. It didn't matter what anyone said, maybe her Mummy could come back. Maybe _she_ could find her in this machine.

The door opened. Marnie bit harder into her knee, gripped her legs as tight as she could and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Jesus! Marnie?"

Marnie stopped screaming. She knew that voice. "Daryl?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Daryl knelt down and set his crossbow against the side of the washing machine.

"Hiding," Marnie wiped her wet eyes against her jeans. "Jordie says when I hear them, I have to hide."

"Your sister is gonna freak when she finds out you're gone," Daryl turned around with his back to Marnie. "Climb on, let's go."

Marnie crawled out of the machine and climbed on Daryl's back. She liked when he carried her like this; he did it a lot over winter when her feet got tired from walking too much.

"Daryl?" Another voice. Marnie knew that one, too. A second later Rick was coming towards them, and he looked mad. "Marnie? What are you doing out here?"

Marnie tightened her arms around Daryl's neck; she didn't like when Rick got angry. He got angry a lot more since they left Hershel's farm. "I got lost," Marnie said quietly. She didn't want to tell him she followed Carl; then Carl would get in trouble. "And I thought the walkers were after me."

"You gotta stick close to our home base," Rick scolded her. "It's too dangerous. What if it hadn't been us coming through here?"

Marnie rested her head against Daryl's neck. "Sorry."

"Jordyn's gonna have a heart attack, and Lori's probably worried sick about where you are," Rick kept on. "That's not good for the baby, Marnie, you know that."

"She said she was sorry, man," Daryl said. "So you want to talk more about it or get the hell out of here?"

* * *

Jordyn was furious. So furious her common sense was gone and she was yelling at Maggie despite the fact here father was near death. "Keep your eyes on her! That's all I asked, you just had to watch her!"

"My father is bleeding to death!" Maggie cried, looking like she wanted to slap Jordyn. "Watching your sister sit on a bed isn't exactly priority."

Jordyn thrust her arms out at her sides. "Clearly, she's gone!"

"Hey!" Daryl's voice rang out through the cell block.

Jordyn turned to see Daryl dropping Marnie off of his back. "Oh, my God," she jogged straight for her sister and plucked her up off the ground. "You scared the shit out of me, girl! Where were you?"

Marnie hugged Jordyn tight. "I got lost."

Jordyn squatted down and planted Marnie in front of her. "Marnie, you _cannot_ wander off on your own," She said taking her sister by her shoulders. "You're too important!"

Marnie's already wet eyes filled with more tears. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

Jordyn wanted to scream at her sister, shake some sense into her. She was a smart little girl, she _knew_ not to wander off with walkers around. But with everyone watching and her baby sister already upset, Jordyn tried to calm herself. Screaming might make her feel better, but it would make Marnie feel much worse than she already did. So instead of screaming, she wrapped her arms around her sister and picked her up. Marnie hugged her as tight as ever.

Jordyn turned around to Rick and Daryl. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for bringing her back."

For the rest of the night, Jordyn didn't let go of Marnie. It was like she was a baby again. If Jordyn stood up, she held Marnie on her hip. If they sat, Jordyn held her on her lap. It wasn't long after the sun set that Jordyn realized Marnie was falling asleep on her shoulder. So leaving everyone to a dinner of stale crackers and the last of their squirrel, Jordyn carried her sister up to the bunk she shared with Lori.

Marnie woke up a little as Jordyn set her down. "It's okay," Jordyn said quietly. "It's bed time." She pulled the blanket up over Marnie and was setting Elroy beside her head when her sister suddenly grabbed her hand.

"Will you stay with me?" Marnie asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jordyn smiled, even though she was sure Marnie couldn't it see in the dark. "Of course." Jordyn climbed up onto the top bunk and laid down next to her sister.

"I didn't mean to get lost." Marnie whispered as her sister rearranged the blanket so it covered all of her.

"I know you didn't," Jordyn kissed Marnie's head and held her close. "I'm sorry I yelled."

Marnie snuggled closer to her. "It's okay."

Jordyn played with Marnie's hair. "Daryl said you were hiding in a washing machine?"

"You told me to hide if I got scared," Marnie reminded her. "And then you'd come find me."

"Yeah," Jordyn brushed the hair of Marnie's forehead. "I'll always find you."

"Even when I get lost?"

Jordyn smiled to herself. "Even then."

It didn't take long for Marnie to fall asleep. Lori came in to lie down, handed Jordyn a plate of dinner - the very last of the crackers and squirrel - and a bottle of water and told her to eat. Jordyn climbed off the top bunk without waking Marnie, the poor kid was exhausted.

With Marnie under Lori's watchful eye, Jordyn took her dinner and an axe and made her way to one of the towers. The group broke into sentry shifts from these towers, Carl and Maggie were currently on duty in a tower each, but Jordyn still went to a third unoccupied one just for time away.

She couldn't taste her food but she ate it all, then tossed her plate aside and sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the tower and her arms resting on the railing. The sky was beautiful, a rich midnight blue dotted with sparkling stars. Walkers moaned from around the prison, and the rattling of a few leaning into the fence kept catching Jordyn's ears. They wouldn't get in, she had to keep reminding herself. They couldn't get in.

From below, Jordyn heard the screech of the tower door opening and then someone coming up the stairs. No moans, no shuffling, no snarling. It wasn't a walker, but still Jordyn turned and gripped the handle of her axe just in case. But it was just Daryl. He sat down beside her and her dangled his legs over the edge. After a few moments silence, he held out a miniature glass bottle.

"Vodka?" Jordyn guessed. They had found a small stack of miniature alcohol bottles in the last home they had raided. Jordyn thought they had drank them all, she herself had polished off all the mini-whiskeys.

"White coconut rum," Daryl snapped off the cap, took a swig and then passed it to Jordyn. "Takes like shit."

"That's because it's a bitch drink," Jordyn took a large swallow of the sugary rum and had to sharply shake her head to get it down without gagging. Rum was never her favourite, but alcohol these days was just like food. Everyone was happy to take what was available.

"Marnie asleep?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah," Jordyn nodded slowly and then took another sickly sweet drink before handing the bottle back to Daryl. "It's my fault she ran off. I told her she was safe in the prison."

"She _is_ safe," Daryl took another sip of rum. "She didn't get hurt."

"Please, you know that was just a fluke," Jordyn rested her head on her arms upon the railing. "She could have walked straight into a herd." Jordyn banged her head against her hands to try and knock out the possibilities of how bad things could have gone. "You still think that leash is a bad idea?" Passing through a town a few weeks before, Jordyn had found a leash for a large dog that she had considered attaching to her sister. Anything to keep her close.

"She screwed up and she knows it," Daryl finished off the white rum and tossed the empty bottle over the railing. "She won't do it again."

Jordyn knew he was probably right. Marnie hadn't run off to spite her, she thought she was safe. And now she knew that she had to stay put. Marnie was probably more scared herself than anyone else had been. She was, after all, still just a little girl.

Picking up her legs from over the edge, Jordyn leant into Daryl, lifted up his arm and draped it around her shoulders. If she wanted contact with him, she'd learned she had to initiate it. And, at least so far, he hadn't denied her. She could generally sense if he was approachable or not, and when he actively sought her out she knew that was a good indicator.

She tilted up her head and pressed her lips just under his jaw line. He met her lips when she went for a second kiss and pressed his mouth against her, hooking his arm tighter around her neck and bringing her in closer. Jordyn wrapped both her arms around him and slowly pulled him down on top of her. She relaxed her arms when she felt him warmly breathe into her and ran her hands up under his shirt, feeling the now familiar ridges of his scarred and firm body beneath her fingertips. He had stopped freaking out about her touching him, but he still tensed when her fingers found his scars, as if he was afraid she would inquire about them. She never had, and didn't plan to. It was just the way they were. In not asking questions, in trusting each other, in quiet moments atop a tower in a prison, they had found their way to be together.


	6. Ready For A Fall

**Chapter 6: ****Ready For A Fall**  


After their encounter on the watchtower, Daryl went to take over guard duty from Carl while Jordyn went back to check on her sister. Jordyn climbed up onto the top bunk and laid down beside Marnie, who was sleeping curled up in a ball. With no clue of the time, Jordyn pulled Marnie into her arms and fell right to sleep.

When Jordyn woke up, Marnie had rolled over and was hugging right up against Jordyn's chest. A blanket kept them warmly huddled together, thought Jordyn didn't remember putting it there. Jordyn blinked her eyes a few times to wake herself. From the look of the hazy sky through the high top windows, Jordyn guessed it to be an hour or so before sunrise. Marnie's knee was pressing against Jordyn's bladder making her wake in discomfort. She managed to stretch out her sister's legs, keep her bundled in the blanket and scoot off the top bunk without waking her.

At some point during the night, Elroy had been knocked aside and was jammed between the bed and the wall. Jordyn rescued him and tucked him in with Marnie before quietly stepping out onto the balcony. Just outside the cellblocks, Jordyn spied Lori sitting on the top of the stairs folding some old children's clothes. She smiled when she saw Jordyn, and motioned for her to come and sit beside her.

"How's Hershel?" Jordyn asked softly. As she sat down, Lori stuck a handful of clothes in her lap for her to fold.

"Still breathing," Lori sighed. "Fever's the same."

"I guess that's good," Jordyn mumbled folding a faded pink shirt. "Did Marnie wake up at all before I came back?"

"Not once. Slept all night. Thought I heard her snoring once, but that was you." Lori smiled. "I put the blanket over you when I got up, you were freezing."

"What woke you?" Jordyn carefully folded a crumpled gray t-shirt with daisies on it.

"Nothing," Lori said to herself. Then she exhaled tiredly. "Everything."

Jordyn sensed it had something to do with Rick, and that Lori didn't want to discuss it so she let it drop. "What's new with the five prisoners?"

Lori let out another laboured sigh. "Three of them are dead."

Jordyn halted in her folding. "What?"

"Rick didn't give details, just said three of them had been bitten." Lori sounded very much like she doubted it had just been the walkers who had killed the prisoners, but she didn't elaborate. "The last two of them, Axel and Oscar, are gonna follow the rules. Keep to themselves."

Jordyn stopped folding again, hoping she had heard wrong. "They're gonna what?"

"Don't start," Lori said through a yawn. In the dim light of the morning, she looked a decade older than she should have. "Rick knows what he's doing. If they get to be too much trouble, he'll..." She trailed off.

"He'll kill them?" Jordyn knew they both knew that's what she meant.

"He'll take care of things," Lori finished. "Keep the group safe, like he's done."

Jordyn chewed the inside of her mouth and began folding a pair of Marnie's jeans that were noticeably less muddy than Jordyn remembered them being last time she had seen them. "Are these clean?"

Lori nodded. "Yeah, I hand washed some of our stuff at the home we were in before we found this place. I know it's kind of stupid to fold it, but it just reminds me of how things used to be, I guess."

"Daryl said he found Marnie in a laundry," Jordyn told her. "We could do some more washing in there tomorrow. Big sinks, prison-grade washing soap."

Lori looked somewhat happier. "Sounds good."

Jordyn didn't know if it was witnessing Lori's maternal act of folding Marnie's clothes, or that she had covered them with a blanket, or the ambiance of the prison at dawn or what, but she found herself saying to Lori something that she had been thinking for months. "Lori, I've been meaning to... thank you. For everything you've to take care of Marnie. After the farm, losing Shane and Andrea."

Lori nodded in agreement. "It was like Day One all over again."

"No safety," Jordyn continued. "No idea where to go. We all had to adjust. Stand guard, fight like hell."

Vivid memories flashed in Jordyn's mind from so many months ago. Images of her first time on sentry duty atop a farmhouse roof with a herd of walkers just one paddock over. The time she had to stash Marnie in the trunk of a car to fend of walkers that were approaching them on the highway. The times she had to go on supply runs alone, searching for food or meds, focused on nothing but walkers. She had to relinquish control over Marnie to Lori.

Lori suddenly placed her hand over Jordyn's and intertwined their fingers. "You've come so far, Jordyn," she said gently. "I've seen it. I keep thinking of when Shane and I found you. You were so quiet, so shaken up. I didn't know how you were going to react. Honestly, I thought we'd lose you. But now - you're strong. You don't hesitate anymore. It's good. It'll keep you alive."

"The only reason I became that way is because I knew Marnie was safe. With you. " Jordyn admitted, so touched by Lori grabbing her hand that a lump formed in her throat. "When I was out there, I never worried about her. Because I knew if something happened to me, you would protect her just as much as I would. She would be safe."

"Well," Lori cleared her throat and let out a tight breath. "She's mine to keep safe. Just like she's Daryl's to keep safe, and Maggie's and Carl's. All of us." Her hand dropped down to her belly. "Carl can shoot and hunt. I hate it, but he's not afraid. Marnie doesn't scream anymore, and she knows when to run and how to hide. But this baby is gonna be completely helpless. And if something happens to me-"

Jordyn cut her off right there. "Nothing's gonna happen to you."

Lori squeezed her hand tighter. "If it does, I want to know that I can trust you just like you trust me with Marnie."

Jordyn had a whole spiel of platitudes to reassure Lori. How she and her baby would be totally fine, how women easily had babies before hospitals and Western medicine. But, as if anticipating, what was to come, Lori suddenly dropped Jordyn's hand and took her face between her palms and pulled her in close as if she were a child.

"Promise me, Jordyn," Lori whispered. "With how Rick is right now I just-"

"Shut up," Jordyn pulled Lori's hands off her and squeezed them. "You're gonna be fine, so this conversation is pointless." Jordyn let Lori go, but Lori clung to her even tighter.

"Jordyn," Lori looked like she would burst into sobs at any second. "Please."

Jordyn pressed her lips together, and then nodded. "I promise." She said. It wasn't to satiate Lori, or just to keep her calm. It was the truth, it was Jordyn's thank you. For what Lori had done for Marnie, Jordyn would repay tenfold to the new baby. Not out of duty or consequence, but out of respect. And she would do it with honour.


End file.
